Lecture 10/15/12

Question 1

What should you accomplish during a language sample session?

Answer 1

• you try to draw the children out as much as possible
• Goal: evaluate the children’s morphology, syntax, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics skills
• You are looking at ability to communicate in the “real world”

Question 2

Research

What did Paul & Norbury, 2012 say about language samples?

Answer 2

• Language samples (LSs) are more sensitive than formal tests in id preschoolers with language delays
• LSs are more effective for treatment planning and outcome monitoring

Question 3

Research

What did Haynes & Pindzola 2012 say re question asking?

Answer 3

• Try to minimize the use of yes-no questions
• ask broad-based questions like “what happened?” “can you tell me more about…
• contribute to the conversation
• tolerate periods of silence
• ask about popular movies, TV shows

Question 4

What are you collecting in a language sample?

Answer 4

• a collection of a child’s utterances

- experts recommend that you get 100-200 utterances

Question 5

What is ideal when collecting a language sample?

Answer 5

• It should be representative– give SLP a picture of what children’s language is like in daily situations
• It should be gathered over several different sessions with several different conversational partners

Question 6

Research

Owens 2010 states that…

Answer 6

• The sample will be less contrived if SLP follows children’s lead and adopts children’s topics for conversations
• A children involved in an activity produces more language than a child who is just conversing about pictures
• Free play is good for younger children
• for older children (8+ years), interviews are best because children talk more than they do in free play

Question 7

What are some interesting topics for children?

Answer 7

• Pets
• legos
• movies
• angry birds
• princess
• tv shows
• friends
• video games

Question 8

What do we want to look at when analyzing syntactic skills?

Answer 8

• verb phrases
• noun phrases
• prepositional phrases
• sentence types such as declarative, interrogative, compound, complex

Question 9

How do we assess semantic skills?

Answer 9

• note the children’s use of words as he plays a game, describes pictures, and tells stories
• look especially for use of nonspecific words like thing, stuff

Question 9

Research

What did Haynes & Pindzola 2012 say in regards to older students?

Answer 9

• semantically empty placeholders (um, uh, you know)
• don’t remember name of thing, so use a large number of words to explain it
• difficulty defining words

Question 10

How do we assess pragmatic skills?

Answer 10

Look for…

• turn taking skills
• conversational repair
• presuppositional skills
• eye contact and other nonverbal behaviors
• topic initiation and maintenance

Question 11

Research

Rice et al., April 2010, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research “Mean length of utterance levels for children 3-9 years with and without language impairments” says…

Answer 11

• we calculate mean length of utterance, or MLU
• MLU refers to the average number of morphemes in children’s utterances
• MLU is a valuable tool for describing children’s emergent language abilities
• MLU is also valuable in investigations of children with language impairments